Cowgirl In The Sand by Neil Young

Album: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (1969)

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Despite being much longer than most rock songs (10:06), "Cowgirl In The Sand" is one of Neil Young's most enduring tunes. Appearing on the artist's second solo album, it features the deliberately unrehearsed, violent guitar assault that has since become one of Young's trademarks.

The song discusses what could be three different women or one woman in three guises, each one connected by the repeated question, "When so many love you, is it the same?"
There have been many interpretations of the song. The most common is that the cowgirl is a promiscuous lady, but even this isn't actually supported clearly by the lyrics. That interpretation stems from the tendency to see "when so many love you" as a sexual line, but there are multiple ways that term can be heard. It can be the kind of "love" that celebrities get from fans, for instance.

David Downing has mused that the song is questioning '60s sexual liberation. Ken Bielen, on the other hand, suggests the song is actually about Young himself - an intriguing analysis supported especially by the song's second verse ("has your band begun to rust?"). Still other critics have seen misogyny in the song, due to the line, "It's the woman in you that makes you want to play this game."

For Young's own part, he's denied anything literal or concrete in the song. In the book Shakey, he said, "The words to 'Cowgirl In The Sand' are very important because you can free-associate with them. Some words won't let you do that, so you're locked into the specific f--kin' thing the guy's singin' about. This way it could be anything."

Young also claimed the song was inspired by Spanish beaches, but biographers determined that at the time of writing the song Young had never been to Spain.
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere was the first album Danny Whitten and Crazy Horse recorded with Young. In Shakey, Jimmy McDonough writes that Whitten showed "an understanding of Young's music that borders on telepathic."
According to Jim McDonough in Shakey, Young and Crazy Horse performed this song in a Mafia-run gambling joint in Providence, Rhode Island. They got so deep into playing that they failed to notice when a huge brawl erupted in the place.
The song's been featured on Decade, Greatest Hits, The Archives Vol. 1963–1972, and other Neil Young compilation albums. Live version have also appeared on Live at Massey Hall 1971 and Live at the Fillmore East.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young included this on their 1971 live album 4 Way Street. The Byrds covered it in 1973.

Comments: 8

Winston Ono from Texas, Dammit!Yer all wrong (mostly)! Despite being written in 1969 (when I was eight), “Cowgirl in the Sand” is about me and my ex.

We met in 1978, taking a college course while still in high school. “Cowgirl in the sand” refers to my ex, who was from Utah, i.e., “out west” and sandy. She was was six months older than me, a year ahead in school, and tended to take charge, hence “Is this place at your command?” I was always trying to make time to see her, which became more difficult when her family moved out to the woods, so that's “Can I see your sweet sweet smile.” And she did have a sweet smile: her lips would part a little at the sides but stay together in the middle. As others have observed about “Old enough now to change your name,” my ex thought she was old enough to get married, and she previously had an unofficial fiancé in Utah. “When so many love you is it the same?” refers to the previous fiancé and me and after my ex’s family returned to Utah she began dating others and eventually married somebody else. “It’s the woman in you that makes you want to play this game" is self-explanatory.

“Hello ruby in the dust” combines two metaphors. The “ruby” is from Eshet khayil, a section of the Biblical Proverbs that begins: “A woman of valor who can find? For her price is far above rubies.” My ex and her husband have settled near the Texas-Oklahoma border—part of the Dust Bowl—so my ex is a “ruby in the dust.” “Has your band begun to rust?” refers to my ex's wedding ring, which is supposed to gold but may be showing signs of rust after forty-some years of marriage to the wrong guy. “After all the sin we've had/I was hopin' that we'd turn bad”—at the time of our romance, my ex and I were in our late teens and went at it like rabbits. However, she was very attached to her church and was concerned that our “sin” would prevent us having a church wedding. I, otoh, felt we just wouldn't tell the church and get married anyway.

“Hello, woman of my dreams” is also self-explanatory. “Is this not the way it seems?” refers to my uncertainty over the fate of our relationship, how things can change so much after all those years and still not change at all, and which parts are real. I met a girl in college and we married after we graduated—the wedding invitations my bride chose had “Purple words on a grey background.” Finally, “To be a woman and to be turned down” is our current situation, in that I'm devoted to the woman I married, so even if my ex had changed her mind I would have to turn her down.

I know I'm not reading things into Neil’s lyrics because it's happened to other people. The guy next door to me during my junior year was dumped by his girlfriend when he traveled to Hamburg and the lyrics to “Shock the Monkey” perfectly described his situation. And while in Hamburg he first heard the German version, “Schock den Affen.”
BirdPurple words on a grey ground
PURPLE HAZE.
AnonymousI asked if Neil Young played and wrote each string part of the song Cow girl in the sand?
Richie from Colorado Purple words on a gray background (unsure of this reference). But the next line is clear and unambiguous: to be a woman and to be turned down. The flower of youth fades, as does the ability to reproduce, her biological imperative expires. Be careful, oh desirable one, you have a time, and its short. The good men move on to more fertile fields.
AnonymousHaving been a specific type of a girl in my day, and growing up with a grandpa who was a cowboy rode in Death Valley early 20th C, grew up on ranch in So. Cali, and myself growing up on the glorious beaches of LI- well, a I always thought this song was about me...a Cowgirl in the Sand! Neil Young gets it right, I think. To me, this is a song about the burdens of beauty. The betrayals. The missed or mixed signals that we all only get to figure out once with no going back. The let downs in love and sexual attraction.....the passage of time and how it wears is away back to dust, rust and particles of sand. Which are quite lovely under a microscope!
Chris from ChicagoI think Joni Mitchell is the "Cowgirl in the Sand" (of California). Two of her many lovers were friends of Neil's--David Crosby, and Graham Nash. David was kicked to the curb quickly, but Graham and Joni lived together in her house for quite a while, but Joni did not marry him. "Is this place at your command? Can I stay here for a while? Can I see your sweet, sweet smile?" Clearly, Graham was in love, but Neil, speaking for Graham, acknowledges that she is in control of Graham's future, and she probably loves that control.
"Old enough now to change her name" (she COULD get married), "When so many love you is it the same?" (after so many lovers is she too jaded to even be in love?), "It's the women in you that makes you want to play this game" (the game of leaving Graham hanging about the future of their relationship). Neil is chastising Joni for playing with his friend Graham's emotions.
Inconspicuous from WisconsinYoung's 1968 introduction to Charlie Manson at Dennis Wilson's place on Sunset led to NOT ONLY an interest in Manson's music, but a slight fascination with his girls. In a recent (2015) interview with Howard Stern, Young admitted trying to get Manson a recording deal, but when queried about the women sounded disappointed saying, "the girls couldn't see past Charlie..." One girl in particular has repeatedly said she was the "cowgirl" when they'd 'act out' under the influence of LSD at Spahn's Ranch. I have no doubt she is the main inspiration for this song.
George from Vancouver, CanadaThe lyrics seem to clearly point to it being one young woman (are you old enough to change your name); &, as for never having been to Spain - he could well have heard of Spanish beachers, or read of them, or seen photos. . . I take this at face value.

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